Liar of the Month Award

TakeAPen created and operated the ‘LIAR of the MONTH AWARD' in the year 2004. The section grew popular fast, and TakeAPen's final choice of the "best" candidates took into account audience recommendations.

A few spectacular ‘AWARDS', relevant until today, are presented below; with a lesson to learn from each one. If you like it, ... >

After being a candidate and runner-up several times in the past, AP received The Liar of the Month award now for its recent ''achievements'' in (a) the tendentious selection of a photo (see down below) selectively misrepresenting a Palestinian-ISM demonstration at Israel''s security fence, and (b) further, by adding a text to this photo totally distorting what really happened there...

A Success: The Guardian published a Correction after Take-A-Pen''s Justified Complaint !I have the unpleasant duty to inform you that The Guardian won this time the disrespectful title of "THE LIAR OF THE MONTH." So, The Guardian is THE LIAR OF THE MONTH in April 2004 at Take-A-Pen!

CNN: "Israeli police enter holy site to quell protest" Truth: Rocks hurdled from the Al Aqsa Mosque compound, in Jerusalem, at Jewish women worshippers who cover against the Western Wall to protect themselves.

So Palestinian and press sources had acknowledged that the vast majority of Palestinian dead were adults and/or ''militants'' - not, as AFP reported, children.

This is not an insignificant detail - the inaccuracy pertains to a highly sensitive issue, and was erroneously reported in the first line of AFP''s dispatch. As such, it sets a condemnatory tone regarding the entire IDF anti-terror operation in Gaza. HonestReporting spoke with the AFP news editor in Jerusalem just minutes after the error appeared...

INTRO

(contd.) … tell us; we are considering the renewal of this section, depending on your recommendations.
The rather rude ‘LIAR’ title was not ‘awarded’ easily, but only to cases in which deliberate dissemination of untruth seemed to be proven, with particularly severe damage done. No such title was awarded for mistakes, or for views simply different for ours. We regularly turned to the criticized media before our publication of the AWARD, and proposed them joint work for clarifications and corrections – in their or in our publication, as found justified.
The Guardian - and the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the BBC were among those who once chose the way of issuing Due Corrections – or joint clarifications together with us – and therefore their Liar Award was changed and softened. In the Guardian’s case we were impressed by the paper’s (and its Reader’s Editor’s - Ombudsman’s - then) honesty and courage to issue a sizeable full correction.